Doll with coordinated head and torso movement

ABSTRACT

A doll which includes a lower torso portion, an upper torso portion which is rotatable about a vertical axis relative to the lower torso portion when the doll is in an erect disposition, and a head which is rotatable about a vertical axis relative to the upper torso portion. The doll is provided with a motor in the lower torso portion connected to the upper torso portion and the head for driving the upper torso portion and head through a toand-fro twisting motion with the head movement being slightly behind the body movement.

[111 3,834,071 1451 Sept. 10, 1974 United States Patent 1191 Terzian et al.

46/120 46/120 8/1973 Glass et al. 46/247 both of Chlcago Primary Examiner-Anton O. Oechsle Assignee: Marvin Glass & Associates,

Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Coffee & Sweeney Chicago, Ill.

[57] ABSTRACT A doll which includes a lower torso portion, an upper 22 Filed: Feb. 22, 1972 1211 Appl. No.: 227,892

torso portion which is rotatable about a vertical axis relative to the lower torso portion when the doll is in Maggi/313(6) an erect disposition and a head which is rotatable [58] Fieid "16/119421 about a vertical axis relative to the upper torso por- 149 tion. The doll is provided with a motor in the lower torso portion connected to the upper torso portion and the head for driving the upper torso portion and head through a to-and-fro twisting motion with the [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS head movement being slightly behind the body movement.

5 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 46/120 46/136 Sloop et 46/121 SHEEI 2 BF 2 102a QMXW DOLL WITH COORDINATED HEAD AND TORSO MOVEMENT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to toy devices and more particularly to a movable figure toy.

2. Brief Description of the Prior Art Dolls which emulate or simulate human actions are very fascinating to children. Accordingly, the art has seen the development of a great number of dolls which can cry, talk, crawl, walk and the like. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in dolls which simulate dancing and posing actions. While the art has developed dolls with different limb and head movements, little has been developed in the area of dolls with movable torso components.

Accordingly, the object of this invention is to provide an improved doll which simulates posing or dancing actions through head and torso movement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is directed, in brief, to the provision of a novel movable figure toy in the form of a doll which twists at the waist and swings its head toand-fro.

The best mode currently contemplated for carrying out the invention is the provision of adoll having a body with relatively rotatable upper and lower torso components and a head which is rotatably mounted to the upper torso. A motor is provided in the lower torso and drives a cam which tracks on part of the upper torso to drive the upper torso from side to side. The cam is linked to a sleeve in the upper torso, to which the head is connected, to twist the head from the torso drive as the torso is twisted. Preferably, the linkage to the head sleeve is such that the head movement is behind, or follows, that of the torso.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the doll of this invention showing the doll in one pose or one station of its action;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 showing the doll in another pose or in another sequence of its movement;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged section view of the doll of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a section view taken generally along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section view taken generally along the line 5-5 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view partially broken away in section of the upper and lower torso connection.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail a specific embodiment therefor, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The doll 10 of this invention includes a body 12 com prised of an upper torso portion 14 and a lower torso portion 16 and head 18 which is rotatably mounted at the top of the upper torso as will be described.

Preferably, the entire doll components are made of a suitably rigid, but slightly yieldable, material, such as rigid vinyl or the like. The doll head 18 includes a facial simulation 20, hair 22 and a center opening 24 through which an extensible hair piece 26 extends.

The doll also includes arms 28 and 30 which extend through openings 32 and 34, respectively, in the upper torso 14, and are rotatably retained in the openings by means of through the enlarged end portions 36 and 38 of the arms. The doll also includes legs 40 and 42 which have openings 44 and 46 for receiving the annular flanges 48 and 50 of the lower torso for rotatably mounting the legs 40 and 42 with respect to the lower torso 16.

Lower torso 16 has an upper wall 52 defining an enclosure within which a pull-string motor 54 is located. Motor 54 includes a string 56 extending outwardly therefrom and outwardly of the torso through an opening 58, terminating in a ring-like handle 60 which may be grasped by the fingers of the user to pull the string outwardly and activate the motor. The motor 54 ineludes an output shaft 62 which is rotatably driven and supports shaft gear 64 thereon. Output shaft gear 64 is in meshing engagement with gear 66 connected to pin 68 which extends through opening 68a in lower torso upper wall 16. The lower torso upper wall also has an opening 72 therein.

Upper torso 18 also terminates in a bottom wall 74 which has a centrally oriented opening 76 of a size and shape to receive the stud therein. A washer 78 overlies the stub 70 and a threaded fastener 80 is threadably received in the opening 72 of the lower torso wall 52 to rotatably mount the upper torso with respect to the lower torso. The underside of the upper torso bottom wall 74 has a cartoid-shaped recess 82 therein which allows relative movement between the upper torso and a disc-like cam member. An elongate slot 84 extends through bottom wall 74 in the area of recess 82. The

disclike cam member 86 is positioned within the recess 82 on the underside of bottom wall 74. Cam member 86 is connected to pin 68 and therefore, rotated through the gear train 66, 64 from the output shaft 62 of the motor. As the cam rotates the upstanding pin 88, which is offset from the axis of rotation of the cam 86, tracks in slot 84 to move the upper torso relative to the lower torso, such movement being accommodated by the cartoid-shaped recess 82. By this arrangement the upper torso 14 is driven from side-to-side in a to-andfro, simulated twisting motion, relative to the lower torso 16, when the motor 54 is activated.

The offset pin 88 is captivated within a downturned end 90 of link arm 92. Link arm 92 terminates in an upturned end 94 which may be received in one of three apertures, 96a, 96b and 960, of extension 98 which is connected to the bottom of sleeve 100. Sleeve 100 is rotatably received within sleeve 102 which is secured to the interior of a doll by means of a flange 102a. Sleeve 102 has a top opening 104 through which sleeve 100 extends. Sleeve 100 is enlarged at 106 above top opening 104 and has a reduction 108 in the enlargement 106 in which the head opening 110 fits to fix the head for rotation with the sleeve 100. Sleeve 100 tenninates in an opening 112 and underlies head opening 24. The extensible hair piece 26 goes through the opening 24 in the head as well as the opening 112 in sleeve 100 and is tied through a strand 114 in the sleeve 100. The strand 114 is wound about shaft 116 which extends transversely through the doll body, being rotatably mounted in hubs 1 18 and 122 and having a handle 122 to the exterior of the rear of the doll.

In operation, after a child has activated the motor 54 by pulling on the pull string 56 and its associated ring 60, the motor will drive the lower torso in a to-and-fro twisting pattern from right to left and so on. Generally speaking, the movement of the torso will be from the two positions shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In addition, the offset link arrangement from the torso drive will rotate the head as well. However, as can be best seen in FIG. 5, the head drive through the sleeve 100 is approximately 90 behind the torso drive. Thus, the head will always follow the torso in its twisting motion as also illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Thus the doll seems to go through very life-like motions of the head being independently controlled as well as movable relative to the body.

The foregoing detail description has been given for clearness of understanding only and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom as some modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

We claim:

1. An animated doll, comprising: means defining a doll body incuding a torso with outwardly protruding limbs and a head movably mounted thereon, the torso including a lower portion and an upper portion connected together for relative rotation about a generally vertical axis when the doll is oriented in a generally erect disposition, the head being connected to the upper portion of the torso for rotation relative thereto about a generally vertical axis, a single rotary motor mounted within the doll torso, said motor being unidirectional and continuous during its operation, and drive means interconnecting the rotary motor to the dolls head and to said upper torso portion for transmitting rotary motion of said motor to oscillatory motion of said upper torso portion in intermittent side-to-side twisting to and fro directions about said vertical axis and for transmitting rotary motion of said motor to oscillatory motion of the dolls head in intermittent sideto-side twisting to and fro directions opposite from the to and fro twisting movement of said upper torso portion.

2. The animated doll of claim 1 wherein the upper torso portion terminates in a base and the lower torso has an upper platform positioned against said base, with part of the drive means being located in said upper torso portion.

3. The animated doll of claim 2 wherein said drive means has a driving connection to said head including an offset link arm.

4. The animated doll of claim 3 wherein the drive means includes a cam element positioned to the exterior of the lower torso platform and wherein said upper torso base has a recess therein in which said cam element is captivated.

5. The animated doll of claim 4 wherein the cam element has an extension positioned in the interior of the upper torso with the extension being connected to a head mounting sleeve by an offset arm. 

1. An animated doll, comprising: means defining a doll body incuding a torso with outwardly protruding limbs and a head movably mounted thereon, the torso including a lower portion and an upper portion connected together for relative rotation about a generally vertical axis when the doll is oriented in a generally erect disposition, the head being connected to the upper portion of the torso for rotation relative thereto about a generally vertical axis, a single rotary motor mounted within the doll torso, said motor being unidirectional and continuous during its operation, and drive means interconnecting the rotary motor to the doll''s head and to said upper torso portion for transmitting rotary motion of said motor to oscillatory motion of said upper torso portion in intermittent side-to-side twisting to and fro directions about said vertical axis and for transmitting rotary motion of said motor to oscillatory motion of the doll''s head in intermittent side-to-side twisting to and fro directions opposite from the to and fro twisting movement of said upper torso portion.
 2. The animated doll of claim 1 wherein the upper torso portion terminates in a base and the lower torso has an upper platform positioned against said base, with part of the drive means being located in said upper torso portion.
 3. The animated doll of claim 2 wherein said drive means has a driving connection to said head including an offset link arm.
 4. The animated doll of claim 3 wherein the drive means includes a cam element positioned to the exterior of the lower torso platform and wherein said upper torso base has a recess therein in which said cam element is captivated.
 5. The animated doll of claim 4 wherein the cam element has an extension positioned in the interior of the upper torso with the extension being connected to a head mounting sleeve by an offset arm. 